Hello and welcome to Grant Writing Basics.
My name is Kathy Allen and I’m the Arts and Grants Consultant at the City of Saskatoon.
I’ll be taking you through this presentation today.
We’ll look at what to do before you begin, the components of a grant application, how
to break those components down, and what else to expect in the application process
A grant application tells the story of who you are, what you want, and where you are
going.
There is no one right way to write a grant application but there are things you can do
to make your application stronger.
The most important thing you can do before starting your application is to spend some
time thinking.
The clearer an organization is on what they want to do, why they want to do it, and how
they will carry out their plans the more successful they will be.
The second most important thing you can do is to read the program guidelines and follow
the instructions.
This is truly the easiest thing to do and can prevent a lot of headache and heartache,
simply follow the instructions as written.
Before you gather all your information ask yourself these questions:
Is your organization eligible to apply for this grant?
Is your project eligible for this grant program?
Are your grant expenses eligible for this grant program?
If you answered no to any of these questions stop working on the grant application and
don’t apply.
If you aren’t sure of the answer to any of these questions, contact the grant program
consultant and ask.
Grant applications generally include information on the applicant, a project statement, a project
description, a timeline or schedule of work, a budget, support material, and a declaration
or information certification section.
A project statement is a sentence or two that captures the essence of your application or
project.
Think of it like a 30 second elevator pitch.
Here’s an example of a project statement: “This project is a weekly exercise program
to increase heart health in older adults.”
A project description provides information about the project.
Some grant applications ask for a written description and some ask for answers to a
series of questions.
Before writing a project description get clear on the 5 W’s of your project: what, who,
where, when, and why.
Ask yourself: What are you doing?
Who is it for?
Where is it taking place?
When is it taking place?
Why are you doing it?
In this example the applicant is holding a basketball camp for girls aged 10 to 12 in
the gym at Cosmo Civic Centre.
The camp will take place February 16th to 20th from 9 am to 4 pm each day.
They are holding the camp so that the participants can improve their basketball skills, increase
their confidence as athletes, and develop a healthy lifestyle.
How will you do this?
What are your timelines?
You can see here that the applicant will book the gym, hire instructors, create the necessary
paperwork, then advertise, register participants, and run the program.
A budget is a financial guide to what you are planning to do.
Revenue is the money that your organization will receive for the project.
Expenses are the costs or bills your organization will pay for the project.
Let’s look at an example of a budget.
It’s often easiest to start with expenses, what are the costs you know you have for your
project?
Here we see the costs are for an instructor, a facility rental, and some equipment.
Ask yourself what you can already do to cover these costs.
If equipment can be borrowed, then you don’t need to include it as an expense.
Once you know the expenses then have a look at the revenue.
If you know your organization has some funding to contribute to the project, then include
that amount in your budget.
Also be sure to include the grant request in your revenues.
In your application you will list revenues first and then expenses.
You can see in this example that the revenues and expenses are balance, the amount of revenues
is the exact same total as the amount of expenses.
Here are some budget tips: Use a calculator
Use commas in large numbers, that will make your information easier to read
Make sure that you use the same grant request amount in all places in your application like
the grant request line and in the budget.
Also make sure that the project description and the budget tell the same story.
If you write about a four-month long program in your project description and only include
one month’s rental in your budget expenses the adjudication committee will lose faith
in your ability to successfully complete your plans.
In-kind donations should only be included in the budget if they are asked for specifically.
In-kind donations are gifts of goods and services that your organization would have to pay for
if they weren’t donated.
Volunteer hours are not considered in-kind donations.
Some grants ask for support material such as letters of support, quotes, or samples
of work.
Make sure to provide all support material that is asked for and do not provide information
that isn’t asked for.
Extra information is not passed on to adjudicators.
If you are asked to provide letters of support, make sure that those letters are specific
to the grant you are applying to and are not letters for other grant programs or activities.
All grants have adjudication or selection criteria to decide who to give a grant to
and how much funding to give out.
Adjudication criteria are in place to make sure the most deserving projects are awarded
a grant.
It’s important to keep this in mind when writing your project description.
You want to make it easy for the adjudicators to see how your project meets the grant criteria.
All City of Saskatoon grants have an Information Certification Page, this is a legally binding
certification.
It is important that only authorized representatives sign the Information Certification and that
they read the information they are signing.
If you are applying online or with an emailed PDF actual signatures are not required, you
can just type the appropriate names into the document.
Here are some application tips: Read the grant program guidelines and application
form carefully, you want to make sure you are a good fit for the program.
Ask if you have questions or are unsure about something
Give yourself plenty of time to complete the application
Follow the instructions.
Answer all the questions, only send in what is asked for, and, this is very important.
Submit the application on time.
Late applications are not accepted.
Be clear, compelling, concise, and realistic.
Every strong application has a clear idea.
It is helpful to write in short and simple sentences.
Avoid general and vague statements.
Get someone outside of the organization to read the application.
This can be helpful to notice typos and grammatical and spelling errors and to gather feedback
on whether or not the project goals and plans are clear.
Assume nothing.
The adjudicators assess applications based on the grant criteria and they only look at
the information provided to them.
They may know nothing about you and they don’t want to be in a position of guessing what
you mean or how you will do something.
Walk away from the application for a few days and then come back and reread it.
Reading the information out loud can be helpful in hearing errors that your eyes might miss.
After the adjudication process you will receive a notification with your grant results.
If you do get a grant read the follow up report requirements before starting your project.
This will help you to know what information you need to keep track of.
If you don’t get a grant, call, and find out what you can do better next time; often
there is a simple solution.
I encourage you to have a look at the Grant Writing Guide and Workbook on the City website
- this booklet provides a variety of exercises as well as more tips to help you create a
strong application.
Thank you for your time!